Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 2:13-14 bible study (September 11, 2023)

Good morning, and may the LORD bless and keep you wrapped in His safe arms throughout your entire day.

Of course, today we must remember that the people of Morocco are in deep trouble after the major earth quake hit their nation.  Prayer for those who have yet to be rescued, for the rescue teams, and for the families of the victims.  If you would like to make a special contribution, you can do so through the ELCA Disaster Relief Fund at ELCA.Org. 

Here at American we are headed into a very busy month, and frankly, the entire autumn finds us getting busier and busier as we approach the end of the Church Year on Thanksgiving weekend, and once again look forward to that season of wonder and waiting, Advent, which begins on the first Sunday of December.   You are cordially invited to come and see what all of this is about if you are not a member of our congregation. Our Rally Day will be on September 24th starting at 8:30AM in our worship space.

Another reminder for all of us is, of course, 9/11 our nation was attacked and the twin towers in NY city fell killing thousands of people, the Pentagon suffered the lost of life, and all of those who lost their lives on the airplanes which were used to accomplish the attacks.  Today pray for first responders and the families who lost their loved ones and co-workers in this grave tragedy.  Please also remember Kandice K whose cancer numbers have gone up a bit again.  Pray that her treatments will get her cancer back to reducing each month when she is tested and treated.

As we all know there is never any lack of need for our prayers and support for the needs of God's children no matter where they live on God's planet.  Soooo, pray constantly, and offer yourself to God as one who is open to His call to serve the Gospel in any variety of settings.

Today we move forward in chapter two of the Gospel of Mark bible study with verses 13 & 14. 

Though Jesus may have looked to offer God's truth in the setting where so many gathered to worship, the centers of worship gradually became closed to the Word that He carried in His very life from God the Father.  Somehow we should never be surprised that what should have been the places most open to Jesus' teaching and preaching, were indeed closed to hear the Truth that He brought.  We have churches today where the very same thing happens.  Instead of focusing on Grace and Love for all people, some houses of worship close their doors and hearts to those who somehow don't make the mark and standard of a particular congregation.  It can, like the synagogues of Jesus' day, refuse to allow the "others" to join them in their so called loved for Christ and the true message of Loving God above all else with everything that we are, and loving our neighbors like we love ourselves.  In those places in Jesus time the expansive rules for living under God's Law were exclusive and harsh.  No wonder they had to reject Christ.  They had never understood the powerful Love of God for His children.  We have churches in our communities which do the same thing!   I am most thankful that American Ev. Lutheran Church, the here church, is an inclusive and affirming church welcoming everyone who walks through the door.   So out of the exclusion of the synagogues, Jesus took on the role of the itinerant preacher, walking the shores of Galilee.  This was no small task.  Ask any pastor developer.  Hours every day spent carrying the Good News for all people into the hearts of the community.  This was not a substandard choice for Jesus.  Palestine was the crossroads of the world.  To get to Africa, without access to ships, commerce traveled through the middle East.  Though Matthew directs the reader's attention to the fact that Jesus was sent to the Jews for their upbuilding and renewal and healing and forgiveness, Jesus had encounters with many people from a variety of places, most notably the people of Samaria.  One of the things which we discover that there were people who were the collectors of use fees for that commerce travel.  Matthew was one of those, Levi, the son of Alphaeus, we call them tax collectors today.  In the modern day we all know about the annual reports to the IRS, but there are other places too, like the tolls collected on roads and highways throughout our nation.  It was along one of these roads, or at the gate of one of the numerous small communities that existed on Galilee that Jesus calls Matthew, a much maligned collector of these fees and tolls.  If Matthew had only collected what the government allowed, there would probably not been much concern around him, but as was the custom, tax collecting became a business of bribery and greed where many charges were inflated based on where a person came from, or the material they were carrying on the road, or if they just looked like they could really afford to be charged more.  It was all up to Matthew's discretion!  So, who was this Matthew that Jesus was about to call to join him in His ministry?  

1. We must know, that like tax collectors of our day, even though they are following a set of laws, Matthew was much hated by the people around him in the community and those who had to carry their commerce through Matthew's site.  Greek writers put tax collectors with the like of adulterers, panderers, flatterers, and sycophants.  This was certainly far from flattering those who served their own benefit at the expense of those who had to pass through their "offices".  As you and I look at Matthew, we have to wonder why Jesus chose him.  What did he see in this man of greed that he wanted for His ministry? 

2. Perhaps what Jesus saw in Matthew was a man who was desperately lonely and always rejected.  Matthew was one who could understand those who would come to Jesus that were shunned for any variety of reasons from being divorced, or being considered untouchable because of their disease, or whose lives were flawed in some other way, according to the law of the day.  Matthew knew their sense of hopelessness in the face of human rejection.  He knew what it meant to be deemed "unclean" by the religion of his community.  Just imagine what it would be to walk in to a congregation, and be told that you were not welcome.  This is what Matthew knew and experienced in his life.  

3. In this choice we also find out about Jesus.  He was never closed to the opportunities which came before him.  He was ready and working for the Gospel 24/7. As Jesus walked along Galilee He found this man Matthew.  Imagine if we were prepared every time we were in the community to see the ones who God placed before us so that they might receive His Word through us?  Note that Jesus was not calling everyone he saw. but Matthew needed the Truth of Christ, and Christ knew that He could use Matthew for His work.  Who has God put before you in your life who could use the Truth of Christ to find their way in the darkness and sin of their lives?  Remember?  The harvest is plentiful, but those who will work in God's vineyard are few.  

4. Of all of the disciples, Matthew gave up the most.  He left it all behind to follow Christ, and found everything that he could never earn through greed and avarice.  He found Love and the One who brought it to the world to fill his life and the lives of others he would meet. People would be hungry to know Matthew, for the gifts that he could bring to their lives, rather than fear him for what he might take from them.  Other disciples could, when there was time, or after the death of Christ, return to their labors of fishing in Galilee, but for Matthew all the bridges were burned to never be crossed again in his life.  Recently in a program gifted to me from my older children, I was asked what small decision made some great change in my life.  I couldn't think of some small decision, but I sure could think of my life's biggest decision, to serve the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and the amazing people I have been blessed to work with, and the power of Christ's Love that I have the sublime privilege of carrying in my life every day, the forgiveness and hope that I know are mine through the Savior, what more could I ever hope for.  Of course there are life's concerns for retirement (if it ever comes, because my call is for all of my life)

5. So Matthew's decision sets him FREE!  For the rest of his life he will have clean hands.  The stress of making a path for himself and accumulating great wealth, trying to create a future and joy and happiness, was gone.  Matthew found all of those things in Christ.  Matthew lost one job, but replaced it with one of the greatest fulfillment.  It wasn't an easier job either by anyone's standard.  It was filled with challenges, danger, poverty by most people's standards, and never ending opportunities to do what was right, good, and God's justice of Love for all people.  In his rash decision to follow this traveling teacher, Matthew has never been forgotten for his choice to follow Jesus, his name is known across the world, and He became the one who had the privilege of telling Christ's story for all people.  When we place Christ and God above all else we will find that we are held in God's care no matter what comes our way.

Tomorrow we will get into chapter 2:15-17. 

In Christ, with joy and confidence in every day.

Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 2:1-12 bible study (September 5, 2023)

May the richest blessing of our Father in Heaven fill your lives today!

I pray that you had a wonderful Labor Day and were able to do the things that you desired to do. I hope that you were not at the Burning Man Festival outside of Reno, NV. I hope that you will join me in prayer for the drivers of our community. Every day as I bring the boys to school downtown, I am encountered by people driving who feel that traffic lights, speed limits, using turn signals, making legal left turns, holding a lane until by signal one can move to the lane next to them and so much more. I know that I am an older driver, but I am really a very conscientious driver who watches my speed, regards red lights as a signal to STOP! and so many other rules of the road. Since the pandemic year it has gotten really rough to drive anywhere. Please work to be a good driver, to be a blessing to other drivers around you, and to be forgiving of others who seem to not care about their own safety or ours.

Today we move on to chapter 2 of the Gospel of Mark bible study. Let's start by looking at the other three Gospels to see how this story appears or doesn't appear in them. In Matthew 9:1-8 we have a very similar story, though somewhat abbreviated. In Matthew the man is brought to Jesus, but not through the roof of His family's home. In Luke the story of the paralytic is nearly identical to Mark's. It is found in Luke 5:17-26. A similar story is found in John 5:1-9a. However, in John the ministry encounter with the paralytic takes place in Jerusalem at the Pool of Siloam. The emotion of this story is much like the other three Gospels. As you can see, John is often different in its content and approach to its parallels with the other Gospels. And, it is entirely possible that there were two occasions on which Jesus encountered a paralytic being cared for, at least in part, by relatives or friends in different places in Israel. According to Mark these four men were determined to get this paralytic to Jesus, the only one who had the power to affect a miracle of healing, so much so, that they tore into the flat roof of the house, where cross beams were three to four feet apart and filled with grasses, branches, and clay. The Bible doesn't tell us who got to repair that roof. That fact was unimportant to Christ's mission to reveal the true nature of God to the people of God in Israel. In this passage in Mark, we learn that the house of Jesus was probably pretty humble. In all likelihood its door opened right onto the street, so, once the house was filled with people, others filled the street in front of the house too. Have you ever been to a block party, or a concert in Reid Park? This mass of people came to Jesus to receive healing, but they got so much more than that. In Christ they discovered a person of hospitality and compassion, willing to welcome strangers into His home, and ready to take care of all who gathered around Him. We also discover that the burden of sin is greater than we might ever think, it not only affects the one against whom the sin is committed, but the sinner must carry the load of their own brokenness with them all day, every day. So, the nature of the Father that Jesus reveals to all who are gathered there is to offer the paralytic forgiveness, to share that God is no longer angry with the paralytic. Please know that in the culture of Jesus' time people saw illness as the result of sin. We see that most vividly in John's story of the man born blind. John 9:1-38. However, we see here too that sinfulness has burdened this paralytic, at the very least with the probable emotional issues linked to sin and health, but also the possibility that this man's health circumstances were related to his own understanding of his sin. Today we understand that such illnesses can be caused by deep psychosis. In other words, linked to the thinking of the time that his sin became such a burden that the man lost his mobility. In the face of all of this, the very next thing we learn about God from Jesus is that he desires and brings to reality forgiveness of sin. The historic understanding of the people of Israel about the nature of God is all about His anger, His readiness to judge, and even more frightening, his desire to punish. Jesus came to reveal the true nature of the Father in Heaven. The commentator, William Barclay, offers a wonderful way to see all of this. "Child, God is not angry with you. Come home, and don't be afraid." (The Prodigal Son) We all need to know this in our own lives too.

GOD FORGIVES!

Now there were Pharisees present in this group of people who had gathered to be healed. That makes really good sense since Jesus had just been touring area Synagogues. Like others, the leaders from those communities had come along with their people. What we encounter now is that hard heartedness that the religious leaders of Jesus's day had historically learned and who had an agenda of not moving from the God who was brutal and hard to please, to the One True God which Jesus revealed as loving and forgiving. Their argument was that only God could forgive sin. In that thinking they were losing sight of the Messiah, and who was walking in their midst, Jesus, the Son of the Most Holy High God. Like so many people today, the contemporaries of Jesus could not understand. As Jesus said, "They were the blind leading the blind." Knowing that this conversation was going on, Jesus asked the men of the law, which was easier, to forgive someone their sin, or to say to them to pick up their pallet and walk away home. And then Jesus said to the paralytic, take up your bed and walk out of here. The community was shocked, with surprise at Jesus teaching and His desire to heal. But it must also have been the very beginning of religious leaders being concerned about the power of Jesus, and His ability. After all, to follow Jesus would mean giving up their wealth and growing power. You and I must always remember that the choice to live in sin is pretty easy and self-serving, but the journey toward righteous, seeking to live according to the Grace which Christ lives, is not easy. Just something to think about.

I will be back with you on Monday, Sept 11, 2023, with the next section of Mark.

In Christ, Pastor Kim

Pastor's Ponderings: Meandering through Mark 1:40-45 bible study (August 29, 2023)

Dear Ones in Christ, on this day of record heat, please take good care of yourselves by remaining inside as much as is possible and staying hydrated throughout the day. Pray for all of the folks who have no opportunity to get into a protective setting due to their life circumstances. Please also pray for the people of Florida as they prepare to suffer the power of a strengthening hurricane, its winds and water surge. Give thanks for living in the desert. Yes, it is hot sometimes, but there are so many in our world who are suffering due to the climatological changes which we have all played a part in causing. May God have mercy and guide us to the necessary solutions to deal with this crisis, and may we have the heart and a willingness to turn things around. Remember that we have Gospel Music this Sunday on the third of September, and after service we will gather for a southern comfort food potluck lunch in the parish hall.

Today we are in the final verses of chapter one of the Gospel of Mark bible study. (40-45) The telling of this early ministry interaction of Jesus with a leper is also recorded in Matthew 8:1-4, and Luke 5:12-16. There is no comparable offering in the Gospel of John. This is a case where the source material in these three Gospels is nearly identical. Though Scholars are fairly certain that Mark was the first written, there is still uncertainty in scholarly circles about the possibility of Matthew having sourced Mark. Luke, written in a much later time, and written by a Gentile, was not considered as the source of this passage.

At the time of Jesus, leprosy was considered a communicable condition. So, an amazing thing in this passage is that Jesus reaches out and touches this person. Christ is not worried about his own safety, rather he is moved by His compassion for all of the suffering of those who are ill, suffering from the illness and from the lack of understanding in their own culture and people. It is important for us to note that Jesus does not say here that it was the faith of the leper which brought healing, yet it is very clear from the text that the leper trusted that only Jesus could bring him healing. At the beginning of the AIDS health crisis, I was an intern at St John's Lutheran, Des Moines, IA. On Wednesday evenings we held what was called Super Wednesday, a time for education, fellowship, food, and confirmation classes in the congregation. Gerry was a man in the congregation who worked the parish hall kitchen preparing food for many of these mid-week’s church gatherings. Gerry fell ill and was hospitalized for a long period of time at IA Methodist Hospital in Des Moines. Just an aside, we also had a Lutheran General Hospital in Des Moines. When I went to see Gerry in the hospital, he was in really rough condition. There was no acknowledged diagnosis for his illness, but later we all understood that he was suffering with an early case of AIDS. At the visit, I held Gerry's hand and we prayed for healing for this unknown enemy of Gerry's health. His comment to me was how thankful he was for my willingness to touch him hand to hand. He told me that no one would touch him skin to skin. Just like Jesus, it was my touch of love and hope that brought Gerry the greatest relief. Imagine the leper, no one would get near him, and yet here is this Galilean preacher and teacher, ready and willing to offer physical touch and healing for him. Both this passage and my personal experience with Gerry still bring tears to my eyes this morning. Jesus did something which no one was willing to do for fear of their own isolation from family, friends, work, and the faith community. In our communities today there are still too many who live without that loving touch of the people of Christ! I am not suggesting that this is an easy thing to do. Of course, it has its dangers for those of us who choose to do it. After all, is this not where are faith takes us as we journey in our lives with Jesus.

One of the next things that Jesus tells the healed leper to do is to go show himself to the priests, and to take the prescribed measures to show that he is truly healed. The prescription for proof was as follows:

Leviticus 14: Be examined by the priest. Two birds were taken, and one was killed over running water. In addition, one must use cedar, scarlet and hyssop. These three things and the live bird were dipped in the blood of the dead bird. After this the living bird was allowed to go free. The one previously infected by leprosy must wash himself, his clothing, and shave. After seven days the man would return to be re-examined by the priest. Then he was to shave his hair, his head, his eyebrows, after which two unblemished lambs were sacrificed, a ram and an ewe. Then three tenth deals of fine flour mingled with oil and one log of oil. The restored leper was to be touched on the tip of the right ear with this mixture, and the right thumb, and the right big toe. Examined once again and cleared by the priests the leper would receive a certificate of health. I know that this seems really primitive, but we must remember that it came from the time of the wilderness wandering at the command of Moses.

In this passage we see Jesus accepting into his presence this unclean man who had broken Jewish law to even approach Jesus, or to talk to Him. In the face of this man's desperation Jesus offered Holy Compassion and love for his wholeness. For Jesus the leper was not unclean, he was one of God's children in need of help and healing.

We might think that there was no need for the leper who was healed to go through the routine which the law required, but Jesus knew that without the conventions of the law the man would never be accepted back into his community. Jesus knew the man needed to submit to these ancient rules for restoration. Christ came into all of these circumstances with compassion, power, and wisdom. We need this very same compassion, power, and wisdom in our interactions with the world of brokenness that surrounds us all. May God bless you this day and always with His Love.

In Christ, Pastor Kim